Page:Shiana - Peadar Ua Laoghaire.djvu/201

Rh but a beautiful, mild, gentle, friendly look. The royal chair itself was on a raised platform, which was about half-a-foot higher than the rest of the floor. There were two other chairs there, one of them on each side of the dais, down on the floor, and there were two noblemen seated on them. They were old, grey men. The one who was on the right of the King had long, grey hair, which hung backward and downward upon his shoulders, and he had a long grey beard down the front of his neck and on his bosom; he was wearing a green cloak, and there was a large harp standing near him. The man who was on the other side of the King had long grey hair also, and there was a band of gold round his head keeping the hair back from his forehead, and he wore a long, grey beard exactly like the one on the man with the harp. But he was a bigger and heavier man by far than the man with the harp.

"Sive was noticing all those things while she was walking up the floor towards the King. When she was as near as five yards or so to him, she stopped.

"'Move up a little further, daughter,' said the King. She did not stir.

"'Move up, don't be shy,' said the King.

"'Move up, there is nothing to happen you,' said the man with the axe, whispering to her.

"She did nothing at all but to let her cloak fall back down on the floor, and to make one spring at the beard of the big man who was on the King's left, and to begin to tug at the beard, just as she did to the man of the colt the night of the fair. The second pull she made at the beard, it came away in her hands in one piece, beard, hair, gold band